Revealing the Nature of Asymmetric Planetary Nebulae through Abundance Analysis

The correlations between planetary nebula (PN) morphology and the nature of their progenitors are explored by examining homogeneous PN samples in the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. We selected PNe with reliable abundances from spectral analysis, and whose morphology is known, and compared the abundances of the element at variance with stellar evolution with the final yields of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stellar models. We found that most asymmetric PNe derive from the evolution of massive AGB stars both in the Galactic disk and the Magellanic Clouds.